Reflective Practitioner- The Process

Now that I am closer to getting into the rehearsal room I need to identify and develop devising strategies that will facilitate the generation of material to build the performance out of and techniques for creating a dynamic creative flow between performers and audience.

Clive Barker was a practitioner who pioneered the use of games in theatre training for actors back in the 1970’s. I think that many of his techniques are still really useful devices for generating material within the context of devising rather than training. I am going to use some of his games and activities to generate creative material.

Barker suggests that games are useful in theatre training because they’ direct the actor to focus his attention outside of himself, and so extrovert the flow of energy instead of introverting it, and by doing so, break down self-consciousness and free the actors body/think mechanisms’. As far as applying this principle to performing and the devising process, the notion of freeing up the mind/body is central. By letting go of the self-consciousness and freeing up the mind/body to possibilities, you can start to discover and develop material connections and relationships. It is important that during the actual performance, the performers have techniques that they can employ which will make them open and in a position to engage with the audience. Some of Barker’s games prepare for this and can form structures that can enable this type of communication flow between performers and audience.

Barker talks about something that I have discussed in previous entries; he writes about how the process of creation can be successful:

‘The most successful sessions are when a group takes the session away from you, and spontaneously begins to throw in their own games; or, more often, a game grows on a group, and they will go on playing it and getting value from it long after you have moved on to some other area.’

I am going to encourage my performers to feel free to take games to their limits to push and tease sessions in a way that engages and fascinates them. The process will be exploratory. I will offer starting points and springboards but I hope that as a group we can develop these into something more exciting than what they started out as.